Getting Better
by orlha
Summary: Ed didn't know what he was getting into when he saved the girl from the labs. She died but somehow came back to life as a homunculus in a world that wasn't hers. But there might be more to her than she knows herself. Will Edward be able to uncover it? Perhaps it is his answer to getting Al's body back. RoyxOC [Parental!Roy]
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** This is a mix of 2003 and 2009. Will try to make it Parental!Roy, I don't think I'll be very good at making Roy parental. But sorry, not a fan of Royai.

* * *

She lay there, gasping. The light of the full moon filtering through half open window, cascaded its light on her.

"Eleni!" The man called her, grasping her hand. It hurt him watch her but there was nothing more that could be done.

"Goodbye, Rui," she lay her trembling hand on his face.

"Goodbye, E-Eleni."

Then all was dark.

'_They said that there was heaven after death. I guess I must have been a sinner because all there was was darkness.'_

It was dark when Eleni opened her eyes. _'Am I a-alive?'_ She pulled to look at her hands. She could not feel the feeling of death in her anymore. The sickness that had lived in her for so many years was gone.

"Rui?" She turned around, getting to her feet. All that surrounded her was darkness. "Rui-?" She called as she walked further into the darkness.

* * *

"Run!" Edward yelled. The heavy stomping behind him told him that Al was right behind.

"They're coming!" Al hollered as he turned backwards to glance. He could see the three silhouettes from the smoke that Ed had created as a diversion.

Edward skidded around a corner. Clapping his hands together, he created a series of walls. It wouldn't hold them for long, but at least it would buy them some time. He wrenched the door open only to find a girl lying on the ground, naked with only chains around her limbs.

"Oei!" Edward shook her. "Are you alright?"

She opened her eyes. "W-W?" She did not seem to be fully awake as her mouth tried unsuccessfully to form words.

"Brother!"

"Take her Al!" Edward commanded, creating another series of walls and a diversion to throw them off. Al grabbed her, quickly placing her into his suit, they stomped off.

"That was so close." Edward panted as the building collapsed behind them. He looked up as Al nudged him. The basement path had led them out into the middle of nowhere. All that surrounded them was trees and grass.

"What the heck is this!? How the hell did we end up here?!" Edward threw his hands up in frustration. The whole trip had been problems after problems.

"Assuming we follow the time we took to get there, we must be three hours from the city."

"Don't forget that the basement was a maze. There's no telling whether its three hours east or west," Edward grunted. They had entered the building for information about the philosopher's stone and had found this girl that was assuming going to be their next sacrifice. They were not sure how it was going to play out, but neither of them could have left her there to die. It had only occurred to Edward how much trouble it might be now.

"How is she?" He asked, raising an eyebrow at Al.

"She's still asleep or unconscious. Hasn't moved since I put her inside."

Edward sighed. Taking her was such a bad idea. His face turned red at the sudden recall of her naked body. Why was she even naked?

"Open up Al." Edward pulled his coat off and covered her. Looking at the chains that bound her, he broke them, dropping it to the ground. He would have questioned why she was there, but knowing the shady activities of the Homunculus, he doubted he needed to question very far.

"Where to, Brother?"

"Hmm- This way!" He pointed at a direction with a grin. "I have a feeling."

* * *

"Oh you're awake," Edward glanced at her. They had been walking for an hour and they had not arrived at any civilization. Clutching the red coat to cover her front, she stepped out of the armor.

"Sorry, that's all we have to cover you." He said, transforming the coat into a dress for her. She nodded, surprised at his alchemy. She was taller and the edges barely reached her knees.

"What is your name?"

She paused, thinking hard. Now that she realized it, she had been sitting in an empty armor that moved and talked. Her memories were still fuzzy. All she remembered was the darkness. "I- don't know."

The boy looked surprised. "Well- I'm sure you'll get your memory back soon."

"Brother!" Alphonse called out. Quickly slamming his palms on the ground, he created a wall. The wall broke as a foot slammed through.

"OOH! Fullmetal chibi! Where are you going?"

"WHO SAID I WAS SO SMALL THAT THEY HAD TO SEE ME THROUGH A MAGNIFYING GLASS!?"

Edward ducked, slamming Envy into the tree. "Don't you ever give up?" He transformed his automail into a blade, rushing into Envy. Envy shifted left and right, dodging his blades. Flipping backward, he narrowly missed the wall that Al that created.

"Oh-to~ Where do you think you're going?" Envy asked, jumping in front of them as the trio tried to escape. "See here. Hand her over and we'll let you go." He grinned. "For now."

Edward turned to the girl. She looked puzzled at him.

"Do I know you?" She tilted her head at him. Everything was so bewildering. When the boy and the armor clapped their hands together and slapped it on something, it changed form. It almost seemed like magic. She moved towards Envy, her hand outstretched.

"Hey!" Edward called out.

"Good girl." Envy smirked, grabbing her palm. He convulsed the moment their palms came in contact. "S-Stop i-it!"

"What?!" She drew back, but Envy lay there convulsing. His form changing from one to another. "Are you okay?"

"Never mind him!" Edward shouted, motioning her to follow them.

"But won't he chase you if I follow?" she asked, obediently following him.

"They already do. It doesn't make a difference!"

It was evening by the time they reached the city. "Al! Go get tickets! I'll grab something for her to wear!" He motioned to her to follow, careful not to touch her. He still had not figured why they wanted her or what had happened to the homunculus, but he was going to be very careful. Besides they did not have the time to think. The homunculus would arrive at anytime.

* * *

"It's not like you to fail, Envy," Lust chuckled. She watched him convulsing. It had been over a few hours already, but it didn't seem like he was going to stop shifting forms uncontrollably.

"That bitch! I'm going to kill her!"

"Come on. She's supposed to be our new sibling. You can't kill her unless Father says so."

"Look what she did to me!"

She laughed. "It's not like you to forget that newly born always have difficulty controlling their powers."

"I didn't forget!" Envy retorted, his forms finally stabilizing into his usual form. He lay there, panting. It was true that he had not forgotten. It was just that he had not expected her to come to her powers so soon.

"If you're so free to laugh at me, then why don't you go and get her instead!"

She stood there laughing. "If you insist."

* * *

They hurried off the train. They had gotten to the East city within two days with no further attacks from the homunculus. Edward was not going to get complacent just thinking that they would stop just because they were in the East City, although he did suppose it was because they had managed to get on the train just before it left on the day itself. That act itself had probably put them several hours ahead of them.

"What if they're already waiting for us here?" Al asked. He carried the girl down the streets, shifting his gaze left and right.

It was a thought that Edward had already considered. Going to Colonel would mean there might be back up, but doing so would most certainly implicate them. He still did not know what was going on or why they were chasing her. It just didn't seem ethical to abandon her just because she was wanted by the Homunculus. Decisions, decisions, decisions. There is no perfect choice, only the better of the two evils.

"Gah!" He threw his hands up in exasperation. "This way!" Edward shouted, rounding into an alley. There were no further in explanations that Edward could have come up with on why they wanted her and neither did she. Was it some kind of act? But it didn't make sense. Was the point of making her follow them if they already looked like they knew every move he made? Where to then? The dorms seemed like a safe bet. If only Al could have gotten tickets to somewhere further. It was not the lack of trying though; it was just that the next train departing was five hours from now.

"It's bad to kidnap people, Fullmetal boy," the sultry voice said from above. Lust landed in front of them.

"What do you want with her?"

"The question is what do you want with her? You do realize you took her from us, right?" She gazed at the girl. "Hate, come here."

She looked up and pointed at herself. "H-Hate? Is that my name?"

"Yes. Now come here."

'_Hate?'_ Edward considered it. Envy, Lust, Gluttony. Is she another homunculus? It didn't quite fit.

"Out of the question! AL!" Edward clapped his hands and slammed on the ground. The ground broke up into series of punches at Lust. She jumped back, dodging them with ease, but when she looked back, they were gone.

"Brother! If what Lust said was true, that means she's a homunculus! Why are we saving a homunculus?" Al asked. They were clanking down the pavement and attracting a lot of attention; obviously, since when a suit of armor carrying a girl and a boy running down the busy pavement didn't attract attention.

Edward could not understand it as well. He just felt that there was something off. Most of the homunculus had seemed rather sadistic and evil, but this girl was none of the above. What if, just what if, not all homunculus were evil. It seemed rather impossible, but weren't homunculus impossible to begin with? Breaking from his thoughts, he quickly created a wall to block Lust's nails from the top. He never quite liked fighting Lust. He did fight best hand to hand generally; however Lust's style was from a distance. He jumped, creating walls to trap her nails. Too slow.

He flew backwards into the opposite building, nailed to it by Lust's nails.

"Brother!" The girl or rather Hate struggled to be let down. "Let me go! I'll go with her!"

'_BROTHER?' _The two brothers paused at her exclamation. Why did she just called Edward, Brother?

"See, even she has sense. Now stop fighting." Lust reached her hand out to Hate. Same mistake. "Gah!" She collapsed convulsing. Her powers were going berserk as well.

Hate pulled back, staring intensely at her hands. Did she do something that made them this way? In that case, the armor and the boy would have time to escape this time right? Before she could turn around, she found herself swept up by a large cold metal armor arm and placed inside him.

"Fullmetal!" Mustang called out. Pulling the boy upright, he gave a quick once over. He was wounded in several places, a large bruise was blooming wonderfully on his cheek. "Havoc! Take him to the hospital!" He turned his attention to the convulsing lady. What happened?

"Al! What happened?"

"She's a homunculus, sir," Al whispered to him.

"But that's impossible!" He stared at the lady. Her nails were growing long and short. Homunculus? They shouldn't be able to exist. Theories disproved it.

"The only thing impossible is the fact it's impossible. That's what a homunculus told us in Devil's Nest."

They were starting to attract attention. "We'll talk about this later. Go join Ed in the hospital first."

His ribs hurt. Ed gently rubbed his cheek with his right arm now that his left arm was bandaged and placed in a sling to prevent it from shifting. Surprisingly, his automail had managed to come out unscathed. He breathed a sigh of relief.

"Are you awake?" The voice from the armor asked. She swung it open and looked at him with her purple eyes.

"You. You are safe."

She nodded. "Al hid me in his suit, as you can see. If they knew me, why did you want to take me away?"

"I had a theory."

"A theory?"

He rotated his right arm slowly, checking the joints and the fingers. His ribs throbbed viciously. Satisfied with his inspection, Edward turned back to the armor and the girl. "A theory that not all homunculus are evil."

She looked at him blankly, not really understanding it. There were a lot of things that she had yet to understand like clapping hands and things transforming. Or her name.

"Oh yea, why did you call me Brother?"

"Al calls you Brother. Is that not your name?"

"Well-" Edward started.

"Fullmetal! Now explain to me what just happened," Mustang flung the doors open. He paused at the sight of the girl. "And who is she?"

The girl's eyes widened at the sight of him. Even if she wanted to forget him, she would not be able to. "Rui?!" She got out of the armor in haste, tripping and falling into Mustang's arms. "Rui!" She clasped her arms around him, breathing in his scent. There was a mild difference in the scent, but it still smelt mostly like him.

Mustang arched an eyebrow at Edward, unsure how he should proceed. Edward looked equally puzzled. The girl had slept much of the two day train ride. "I'm sorry. My name is Roy Mustang, not- Rui," he said, gently unwrapping her arms. She took a step back, watching him in bewilderment.

"Do you not recognize me? It's me, Rui! It's me, E-" she stopped, frowning. She knew her name, it was just on the tip of the tongue. Now it seems like it had disappeared. "What was my name-?" She knew Rui. She remembered holding his face as she closed her eyes. She remembered dying. Why was she still alive? She peered at her hands. She remembered her sickly hands, emaciated, pale and riddled with her veins, but her hands looked healthy. Why? What is her name?

"So what happened Fullmetal?" Mustang asked, turning back to him.

"Well, we went to Lior, it was a fake stone. Then we got hints of the real stone just a few miles of Derul, so we followed there and went found their secret basement of the church. Then we found some arrays and some research notes. AHHHHH! THE NOTES!"

Edward spun to Al. "WHERE'S THE NOTES!?"

"The notes! The suitcase!" Al replied. They both looked around the room.

"WHERE'S THE SUITCASE!?"

They stopped and sighed. Edward palmed his face in exasperation. "AL- YOU FORGOT THE SUITCASE!?"

"It was on the pavement! I dropped it when Lust attacked you to create the wall! And then-" He twisted his hands anxiously, recalling what happened to the suitcase.

Edward got off the bed, putting his shoes on as quickly as he could with one arm. Mustang pushed him down before he could rise. "Havoc, Breda."

"Sir!" The two figures pushed open the door and saluted. Edward had not noticed the both of them sitting outside the door. Then again, the door was closed.

"Find Fullmetal's suitcase. It should be where we found him." He did not bother describing the suitcase. Edward had been carrying the same suitcase everywhere.

"Continue the story," he prompted as the doors slammed shut.

"We found the notes, but we were interrupted by the homunculus. Or rather, we found the homunculus hideout. There were chimera test experiments everywhere. Then as we were trying to escape, we found her chained and since she was still alive, we decided that we couldn't just leave her there. So we took her. Apparently the homunculus want her back bad enough that they attacked us twice already. They call her Hate."

"Hate?"

"It's a theory. If they call her Hate, she must be a homunculus as well. She doesn't seem evil like the rest of them. Anyway they all have tattoos somewhere on their bodies. But- you can't exactly strip her to confirm right?" Edward drew the tattoo on a piece of paper.

Mustang frowned, inspecting the drawing. '_Homunculus, philosopher's stone. What's next? Furher's a homunculus as well?'_

"This is all so fascinating, but you can't surely think Homunculus actually exists. Do you?" Mustang said, throwing the drawing onto the table.

"Wait. I saw it," Al interrupted. "Please show them your left foot," he nudged her gently.

She lifted her foot up. There on her left foot was the tattoo.

"Uhm.. What's a Ho-mun-cus? Did I pronounce that right?" She asked.

"Homunculus. It means people who were created from alchemy. It's considered impossible to create Homunculus, but as you can see from Lust and Envy and yourself-" Edward trailed off.

"Does that mean I'm not a real person?" She looked at the tattoo. '_Is it because of this tattoo that people think I'm a Homunculus?_'

The two alchemists looked at each other, unsure how to approach the question. What defined a person? A person was a human being. What was a human being? A human being was a man, woman or child distinguished from other animals by superior mental development. If they went along that train of thoughts, it could not be said that Homunculus were not real people.

"I- " She looked up, breaking from her thoughts that seemed to spiral downwards. If Rui would catch her thinking of such stuff, what a scolding she would get. "I think I'm a real person. I feel- warm. I have memories too."

"You do?" Edward stared at her in surprise. If he remembered it correctly, Lust had told him how they did not have memories of the past before they came to life.

"I remember.. lying on the bed. It was dark, but there was the full moon. I was sick. I remember dying. I remember the darkness. I remember someone called me as I was dying. E- ly-?" She sighed. "I think that was my name."

She looked so lost and forlorn as she stood there, twisting her fingers nervously. Mustang didn't really think she was evil, but he did not really have a basis to judge considering he had never seen a homunculus before today. He had seen Edward's injuries and reports and that was probably enough suffice for now. If these Homunculus really existed then he would have to re-evaluate his plans.

"Ely, right? You'll come with us. Fullmetal, we'll protect Ely for the moment. Come to my office when you get discharged. I still want your report by then."

"Colonel, where is she going to stay?" Riza asked.

"Good question. What about your place? Protection from you and you can bring her over in the morning."

"Yes sir."

"Brother. You should rest, it's already past midnight," Al said, stacking the notes.

Edward was still immersed in deciphering the notes that he received from the ruins since Breda and Havoc had brought back two days.

"You'll be leaving the hospital tomorrow. Colonel wants you in the office at noon. You'll have to sleep if you want to have energy for tomorrow," Al said. He knew it was a futile effort, but one had to try. When his brother was immersed in his research, he would tend to ignore everything else.

"BROTHER!" He said, albeit too loudly. Snatching the notes out of Edward's hands, he gathered all the notes and put it in the suitcase. "SLEEP! You can continue tomorrow."

Edward sighed. When Al became like that, he knew it was useless to resist. He lay down, turning to the window, thinking of the girl he had saved. "I wonder what happened to the girl."

"Ely? Mustang had her placed under protective custody. She's been here a few times you know?"

"She has? I didn't see her."

"Of course not. You were too busy reading the notes."

"But Al-" he whined. "You saw the notes too! It might not entirely be about the philosopher's stone, but it talks about resurrection of lost body. This might be the closest lead we have so far."

"Tomorrow, brother."

Edward grunted unhappily.

* * *

She was sitting in a wheelchair facing the open balcony doors. The blue sky peppered with small cotton clouds, she could see Rui out in the garden. That used to be her job. Rui would go out to work and she would tend to the vegetables in the garden. It was not like they couldn't afford it, it was just that Rui liked her vegetables.

"Look!" Rui called out, coming through the door.

She must have been lost in her thoughts to not notice that he had left. She brushed the leaves off his black hair, wiping the dirt that had smeared down his face.

"We're having tomatoes for dinner. They've grown very well this season," he smirked.

"Why are you here Rui?"

He looked confused. "I took a leave of absence, remember?"

"I know that. Why did you do that?"

"Because-" he floundered, looking for words.

"You can't have your whole life on hold just because I'm like this. I'm not going to get better."

His pocket vibrated. That would probably be the office. She knew how important he was to the company. Snatching the phone from his pocket, she flipped open the cell phone. "He'll be coming in in a bit," she said before snapping it shut.

"I won't."

"Yes you will."

"Eleni," he called. There was hurt in his voice.

She closed her eyes shutting the pain in his voice away. "Go!"

"No!"

"LEAVE!"

"Eleni!"

She gasped, clutching her chest as pain shot through her.

"Eleni! Stay with me!"

She felt herself floating. Rui must be carrying her to the car.

"Eleni!"

"Wake up!"

Someone shook her. "Ely."

"It's Eleni," She replied, opening her eyes. Blue eyes looked down at her in confusion. "Eleni is my name. Not Ely." She got up, taking in her surroundings. It felt like she had been asleep for a long time and she was finally seeing the blue sky after a long time.

"Ely- I mean Eleni, are you alright?" the soldier asked her. He was kneeling beside her couch.

He was… She tried to put a name to his face. "I'm okay, Havoc. Just a dream."

"Did you remember more?" It was that familiar baritone again.

"Yes, Colonel." She had remembered much more. "This is not my world."


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:** Any fangirl would realize that some things I'm mentioning didn't happen at that time. Yes it is a bit messed up and I will try to stick to the original timeline, but not all the time. So in this case, Greed got caught first before all the Liore things happened and just Greed, no Mei or Scar or chimeras. Let's just assume it happened this way.

* * *

"Father is so not pleased that that chibi took Hate," Envy smirked. He had fetched Lust after she had gone down from Hate's powers. He was not even entirely sure why Father had made a new sibling. Weren't the 7 sins only supposed to be 7? The idea of 8 sins sounded ludicrous in Envy's mind. He was not even sure what her powers were. When Gluttony was born, all he did was eat. It was easy to figure his powers even if he was supposed to be a fake gate. For a man who was barely interested in his creations, he was immensely interested in Hate. Even for Greed, Father did not care about his betrayal until his repeated attempts to botch Father's plans. He shrugged off the conflicting thoughts. Thinking about difficult things was not part of Envy's personality. He was a straight-forward person and liked uncomplicated things, liking making fun of the chibi. He would leave it to Pride and Wrath to figure it out and pass it along instead like he always did.

Like Envy several days ago, Lust sat there watching her nails shrink and grow uncontrollably. She had not spoken much except to snap at Envy who gloated at her constantly._ Her _powers seemed rather strong. Was she created for a purpose like Gluttony? Father had created Gluttony to make a fake gate. Though Gluttony was very much a failure, if Gluttony had been given the same amount of intelligence like the rest of the sins, he could have been the most powerful one. Lust considered Hate, inspecting her birth and powers with an acute eye. She had not been born differently from the others, at least not outwardly. She had been given the same amount of convalesce time as them. If she had not been kidnapped, she would now be clad in the same clothes as them that served as a form of limiter. That was as much as Lust knew. For a homunculus to know so little about homunculus, it was ironic.

"...watched her..." she caught only the tail of Envy's comment.

"What?"

"I said that I've been watching her. It seems like her form has stabilized," Envy repiled hotly, annoyed at Lust's lack of focus. If her form had stabilized, her powers should be somewhat stable as well. He waved in front of Lust's face. "Helloooooo?"

"I heard you." She smacked the hand away. "What's the plan?"

"Father says we have to fetch her back." Envy threw the outfit in front of Lust.

Lust looked at the outfit. Black with red stripes going down the arms, typical homunculus outfits. She bit back a sneer, putting on an indifferent face as she always did. Their identity and their cage. She hated them and at the same time was proud to have it. She was just a bundle of dissonant thoughts today. She shook herself out of it as she felt the last of Hate's power dwindle into nothing.

"What's the plan?"

Envy broke out in a wide grin. "You'll like this."

She doubted it.

* * *

Mustang could feel a migraine coming up as the girl explained. She wasn't exactly a girl. According to her, she was at least 27 when she died. But _the girl_ sort of stuck to her like a persistent title, the same way _the brat_ stuck to Fullmetal. Talking about persistent, there was now a very persistent throbbing in his head. The story she had told wasn't making much sense, then again not much made sense since Fullmetal got back.

'_He better have his report ready,' _he growled irritability, rubbing his temples. He would so burn him if he did not.

Why did he ask her that question? Right now all he would love to do is rewind an hour into the past and stop himself from asking her that question. If everything she said was true, then he would have to re-evaluate everything starting from "What is Death?"

"So you're telling me that this is not your world because your world has technology way better than ours?" he repeated.

"There's that and here has this…" she clapped her hands together, mimicking Edward's alchemy actions. "Magic?"

"It's alchemy. Magic doesn't exist," he replied flatly. He pulled out his pocket watch. Noon. Where was the brat when he needed him? The brat was late. He was used to the brat's coming and goings and never really minded him being late. After all where else would he be besides being in the stinky office? But for once, he wanted to talk to the brat about her.

She flinched at his tone. He reminded her strongly of the first time she met Rui not that she remembered much of it.

The door flew open. "Yo Colonel Bastard!""

Mustang had seen the blonde hair brat as he entered. He resisted the urge to put on his alchemy gloves and snap at the kid. No, he would not stoop to the brat's level. "FULLMETAL! YOU'RE LATE!"

"No. Not really," he muttered, pulling his pocket watch out. "I came as fast as I could anyway. The doctors were so fussy." He chucked his suitcase on the couch and pulled out two sets of crumpled papers.

"Yo Ely," he called out, remembering his theory.

She smiled nervously, fingering her dark brown hair. "Hello."

"Fullmetal. My room." Mustang did not wait for reply as he turned to at his desk.

"Later," Edward smirked at her as he stomped into the room with the crumpled paper.

"What is it, Colonel Bastard…"

She heard him say as the door closed with a firm click. A loud snap and some yelling was heard followed by the smell of something burning. She frowned at the door, wondering how the other soldiers just sat down ignoring the smell.

"Aren't you-" she started.

"It's pretty normal with Chief and Boss," Havoc chuckled.

"I see…"

* * *

"What the hell did you do that for?!" Edward yelled, patting the fire out with his automail arm.

"I just felt like it."

"Tyrant."

"Reports."

Edward chucked the crumpled papers onto the messy table as he flopped onto the couch. "How's she?"

Mustang stiffened at his question suddenly remembering at what she said about her new memories. "You should ask her yourself," he paused, wondering if he should mention.

"Apparently from Riza, she sleeps almost all the time. And when she comes in with Riza, she spends sleeping on the couch. "

"She looks pretty awake to me."

"For now. I have yet to see shadow or hide of these mysterious Homunculus you talk about."

"About that." Edward scratched his head, unsure how to begin. "See Homunculus has some power. Envy has this shapeshifting one and Lust has nails that grow sharp and pointy on demand. So Ely has some power that causes their powers to go berserk. After she touched Envy and Lust, it seems like it threw them into some spasm. I think that's why they haven't appeared."

"I see." Mustang stared pensively at him. "That must be why it felt weird when I grabbed her arm the other day."

"Weird?"

"It feels sort of like activating the alchemy circles, but not really it." He tapped the table irritably. "Never mind that. That was not why I called you in. Explain to me your theory."

Edward raised a quizzical eyebrow at him. He should have guessed that it was going to be hard for Colonel to swallow his theory considering he had yet to really meet one. In order to understand it, he would probably have to go to the basis of it. "See, Colonel. So far all the homunculus we've yet are rather, evil. They think they're the superior species because of their superior reflexes and constitution and their inability to die."

"Inability to die?"

"Well- yea. You stab them in the heart and they go Haha! And come back to life. Kinda like that. Anyway, they all seem to wear the same kind of outfits. Black with red stripes and red circles on the ends," he drew as he explained. "But she doesn't and she doesn't seem to know anything. More importantly, she seemed rather nice."

Edward had his doubts on the last part but he was going to tell Mustang that. She had been sleeping almost all the way after all. You can't really judge someone's character from a sleeping figure. At the very least, she hadn't broken out in some maniac laughter or shown sadistic signs like how Envy and Lust seemed inclined to. If she had some superiority complex or need to kill, surely she would not have waited for so long to move. It had been after all at least four days since he had taken her from the labs. The lack of knowing her name and the persistence of the homunculus trying to retrieve her had made Edward realized one thing: she was important to them. Of course, it was not like Edward would tell Mustang everything he knew or guessed, so he hid the niggling feelings away with a smirk.

"So I read about how animals had imprinting on them when they were born. Defined to them who were allies and enemies. I thought of this: What if Homunculus had the same?"

"You're trying to… imprint?" Mustang sputtered in an incredulous tone. The idea of getting an adult to imprint on someone was almost mind-boggling.

Edward waved his hands at Mustang's disbelief. "Don't shoot it down so fast. Think about it. Homunculus are humans born from alchemy." He looked down at his hands. He had not spoken the possibility to Al yet, but what if he was able to recreate a body for Al. They had only discussed about getting his body back from the gate. It had occurred to Edward that there was a possibility that Al's body was gone, decayed, decomposed. But if he could create a body for his brother…

"Fullmetal…"

There was a touch of concern in the Colonel's voice when he called out. Edward almost smirked. The Colonel concerned for him? The world must be coming to an end.

"Fullmetal," Mustang called again, this time in his authoritative voice.

He looked up startled. Edward had not noticed Mustang moving to stand beside him.

"Remember what you said when you became the state alchemist, dog?" He glared at the boy. Edward might appear carefree and rude, but it was all an act.

Edward gave a small grin. "Woof. Do you want me to wag my tail as well?"

"Yosh yosh," Mustang patted his head. _Looks like he recovered some of his spirits._ "Anyway, there's something disturbing about being in your debt."

He handed a file to Edward. "Shou Tucker. Sewing Life Alchemist. Apparently he created a chimera that could talk."

"Talk?" Edward stared wide-eyed at the file. A chimera that could talk.

"Hurry up!" Mustang smirked at him with his arms crossed. The boy had been so captivated by the file that he had not realized Mustang had been waiting for him by the door.

"Be back later," he said as he strode past Riza. She gave him the all-knowing smile as she watched Edward follow him, face into a file.

Eleni watched him leave. There were many questions she had to ask him. How did she get into this world for starters. Mustang had loaned her some of his basic alchemy books. It was so interesting. Alchemy is the knowledge, analysis and recreation of the laws and the currents that exist within substances. It seemed familiar to science. There were bits and pieces of memories that Eleni had started to remember. Bits of science, the car, the cell phone, batteries. Idly, she began to draw things that popped into her head. She was not very good, but at least they were recognizable for most parts. Her dog, a black and white sheepdog, Rui with his bed head sticking out. She chuckled at the memory. She sighed. There was no point thinking about them if she couldn't get back. She was already dead there. Could she?

She mused over that, flipping the pages for relevant information.

* * *

"Eleni."

Havoc tapped Eleni to get her attention. She turned to look at him with her large green eyes. Well they weren't that large, but they were very pretty. He secretly imagined her hugging him like she did to Mustang in the hospital.

"Havoc~~" Wrapping her slender arms around him, he leaned over to put his arms around her small shoulders.

No, no. It should be… "Jean~~" He could feel a nosebleed coming up.

Bang! Snapping out of his daydream, he stood straight, saluting.

"Are you listening?" Riza asked blandly.

"Yes Ma'am!" Quickly, he turned to Eleni and gathered her stuff. "Quick! This way!"

He strode furiously down the hallway, feeling Riza's eyes on him.

"Did she just shoot you?"

"No! Nononononono," he shook his head too fast for her to even see his expression if she could keep up with him. She jogged every few steps so that she could catch up.

"Is that even allowed?"

He coughed, choosing not to answer it instead. "We'll be fetching Boss on the way. Then dropping him off at the dorms."

"Boss?"

"Ah… That's Edward. You know…" he motioned as he navigated the car through the streets. "The shorty with the blond braid."

"Why does Colonel call him Fullmetal if his name is Edward."

"Hmm- Edward's a state alchemist. So when you become a state alchemist, you get a second name. Boss' is FullMetal Alchemist."

First she frowned, her eyebrows knitting in the middle as she contemplated his words. Havoc found her funny to watch. Like boss, she was so transparent with her emotions. He felt disappointed when he pulled up Tucker's house. Why was everything so complicated in this world? In her old world, people had one name, their legal name and that was the end of it. Perhaps it was an army thing. If it was, she couldn't guess what Rui's name might have been. Stone face? She stifled a giggle back at the thought of that. Maybe they should change Colonel's name to sour face as well. She smothered another round of giggles with her hands.

"Wait here. I'll go fetch Boss," Havoc said, wondering what had caused her to laugh so much.

She nodded, she breathed deeply, trying to kill the laughing. Eleni turned back to her previous thoughts, preoccupied with the multitude of questions she had to ask Edward. She would call him Edward, she was not in the army. It might be odd for her to call him Major or Fullmetal. Come to think of it, she had not told him what her name was. She gazed out of the window, watching the people. She had never expected herself to be in this time zone, in such a fascinating place with magic everywhere ever in her lifetime. She had after all always been practical.

'Alchemy, not magic.' She corrected herself. Mustang had the irritated look when she called it magic. Yawning, she was starting to feel sleepy again. It was difficult for her to stay awake. Her eyelids felt so heavy. She could practically hear sleep call her.

"How does it feel?" She asked the suit, putting her wrench down. Turning to the screen, she typed furiously.

"No issues? Good good," she smiled. This suit was a success. The exo-skeleton was working out very well. Better than she had expected in fact.

"Try moving your arm," she made the motion and the suit obeyed. "Good good. Help him out of it," she nodded to the two technicians, turning back to the screen to input today's results.

"Lu Lysander, is that right?" She said, not really waiting for a reply as she flipped his charts.

"_Rui_ Lysander," he corrected. She glanced surprised at his soft but prickly baritone. It was not coarse like most soldiers especially one high ranked like him though it certainly had the tone of one that was used to giving commands.

"Right. Second Lieutenant Rui Lysander. It seems that this exo-skeleton has accepted you. So you may use this for training as you wish," she picked up some papers off the table.

"Accepted… me?"

"Well you can use compatible, but we've yet to find an exo-skeleton that can be used by more than one person," she lunged into a length scientific explanation though she was fairly certain that he probably would not be able to follow it. Most soldiers were rather dense when it came to theories and sciency thing as they called it. They preferred the 'Tell me how it works and that's all I need' approach. It was rather condescending of her, she supposed as she continued her rant, waiting for the soldier to stop her and say the usual thing. She turned to look at him, expecting to see a tuned out face, except he was watching her with great interest, or rather listening to her.

"So you mean they believe that because of the isonodium in the frame that gives the suit a resemblance of a soul? Have they tried using a different alloy? I read that Electirium is rather strong and flexible," He asked eagerly, taking the opportunity of a momentarily stunned silence.

"I- uhm- Yes. You…" she stared at him, inspecting him. "Followed my explanation?"

"Should I have not…?" he asked almost hesitantly. He ran his hands through his short black hair. "I like listening to these stuff. It's very interesting. The guys in the bunker can be pretty dense." He shrugged, pulling on his coat. He must have sensed that their scheduled appointment had ended.

"If you have the time and you don't mind, you can always stop by." She felt her mouth twitch upwards into one of her rare smiles.

He smirked as he let himself out. "You might regret saying that."

"She's sleeping again?"

"She seems to sleep almost eighteen hours a day."

"Eighteen?"

"Well Fuery and Breda timed her."

"Isonodium!" She exclaimed, fumbling for a pen and paper as she woke.

"Isonodium?"

"Yes. It gives the frame a resemblance of a soul. It is believed that it is because of the alloy that's why the suit works." She frantically started writing down the calculations for it. She had been the department head of the power suits in the military base. She would have never forgotten all the details, not when she was the one who had created it.

"Hold on. A resemblance of a soul…?"

She felt the firm grip pull her from her drawings. An automail hand tugged her drawings, causing it to spill onto the floor. "Edward?" She looked up puzzled at his disturbance. He being the child prodigy would understand the importance of such knowledge. That was what she thought. Edward inspected her drawings on the isotopes. Isonodium had the most remarkable isotopes drawings.

"Nii-san," the metal suit picked up one of her drawings. Was it wariness or anxiousness that she heard in his voice. Edward read through her calculations seemingly able to follow it.

"An array?" She heard Edward question as he pursed through her drawings. He flipped through her scribbled writings, nodding in understanding as he did. The metal boy and metal suit discussed animatedly at her drawings.

_Alchemists are scientists. It is our job to always look at things with a logical mind._

If what Mustang had said was true then, she shouldn't be so surprised that Edward was able to follow it. She sighed, but wasn't he only a fifteen year old boy?

"What is this Isonodium made of?"

"Well…" Eleni pulled the paper over, breaking the alloy into different components of alloys. "They say because of the mix of these seven alloys, it gives Isonodium a special attribute. These seven alloys happen to be the seventh alloy of each type of metal."

"What's so special about that?"

She rubbed her chin as she thought on how to explain. "Seven is a special number in my world. They believe that seven is a powerful number." She drew an array vaguely remembered seeing in a history book. "They believe that on the seventh day, God created the world or something. So if you…"

Edward pulled the array out of her hands. "Seven! Why didn't I think of that?" He pulled out his notes eagerly, causing much of it to spill onto the floor. He would have been upset if it was not because he was so preoccupied with the thought. Basing his drawings off her isotope drawings he began redrawing a new array. "If you had seven instead of five," he muttered, adding new things and taking out stuff from her array.

Eleni peered over his blond head. She would have to read much more into this alchemy thing than she expected. The drawing that Edward had drawn was much more complicated that what she had read.

"Hey…" Havoc turned around. "Boss, your stop. Boss…"

None of the trio responded. Something groundbreaking must be happening back there. He stifled a sigh as he stepped out. Tonight was going to be a long night.

* * *

"East headquarters, Colonel Mustang's office."

"Yo Fuery."

"Havoc? You were supposed to be at the Dorms two hours ago! Colonel's fuming!"

"Ah… well... You see. I was supposed to drop boss off first then drop Eleni at the dorms, but it seems like they found something exciting while in the car," he shifted the handset to his other ear while keeping an eye on the car. "I tried to get their attention, but you know…"

He rubbed his neck, trying to rub the feeling away. For some reason he was getting a prickly feeling. It was not just his neck, it felt like something was telling him to get the hell out. He shifted uneasily, his eyes exploring the darkened cityscape. It was dark, dimly lit with the gas lamps. Nothing out of the ordinary, but Havoc couldn't shake the feeling of being watched. He turned uneasily, still keep an eye on the corner while he did a 360 degree turn.

"…Colonel says to just pull Edward out of the car. He wants you…"

He wasn't really paying attention to the phone call anymore as he spun towards the car. "BOSS!" He yelled, not bothering to even hang the phone up. He had seen it coming. The lady strolling down the pavement in a military area was odd. Just a gut feeling, but he always trusted it.

"BOSS!"

Whipping out his revolver, he shot the lady just as her nails extended. Edward rolled out, clapping his hands as he rolled out of the car. "AL! The notes!" There was always time for the notes. Eleni hurried out of the car, carrying the bundles of notes with her as well. It was just as well for she stepped out after Al not a moment too late. The car behind her crushed like a can as Envy landed on it.

"Hello Hate. Are you ready to go home?"

"Envy." Edward looked up at the homunculus. Top on list of the things Edward didn't really want to fight were homunculus. You can't kill them, they just come back to life. You can't really severely injure them to make them retreat because they just regenerate. So really, the only one can do while fighting a homunculus is fight to escape and with their superior speed, the outcome was quite easy to guess. He might have fought them several times, but all of them he had been let off for one reason that he did not know yet.

"Yo chibi-chan!"

"DON'T CALL ME CHIBI!" He transmuted a rock fist at Envy. With a quick burst of speed, he rushed towards Envy. His automail blade reached towards Envy, slicing through his neck. Blood gushed out. He gurgled, grabbing his throat. But Edward was not done. He punched him a few more times.

"You're dead!" Envy screamed as soon as his throat regenerated. He threw a high kick, sending Edward backwards.

"Havoc! Grab Ely and run!"

Havoc paused in mid-firing. He didn't like shooting ladies, but she wasn't going down at all or even slowing.

"Al!"

Al didn't need any more prompting. Grabbing Ely, he dashed towards the next secure location he could think of: Headquarters.

"Al!" She tugged at the armor. "Let go of me!"

"Brother will kill me if they get to you!"

"If you don't, they'll die!" She fell unceremoniously onto the cold concrete with Al's loosened grip.

"They won't kill him." Al looked down at her. Though there was no facial expressions, Eleni could tell the hesitation in his voice.

"I'm flattered you are all protecting me. But between a stranger and your brother who would rather see get hurt?"

He did not reply. There was no need to reply because they both knew the answer. Anyone could have guessed.

"Besides, the last two times that they tried, wasn't it me who stopped them?" she said with a smile. The androgynous boy could shape shift, the lady could extend her nails like wolverine, if she was a homunculus like them, wouldn't she have some sort of power as well? Eleni might question her ability to use her powers consciously, but there was no way she was going sit around being protected by a young kid.

Without waiting for a reply, she took off towards the fighting. Her body was light, her footsteps were barely audible. It felt different and quite unlike the clumsy Eleni she remembered herself to be. If she was really a homunculus...

Eleni did not entertain the rest of thoughts that came with it. It was not the time for them. Not especially when the young man was already lying on the ground motionless.

"Well chibi. It was fun while it lasted." Envy squatted over Edward. A broad smile reaching from ear to ear was plastered on his face, displaying his pointed teeth. Envy took great pleasure in ticking the shorty, he wasn't going to let it end so soon. "I got my orders to not kill you."

"Let's go." He stood, ignoring the trembling boy.

There was so much pain. His ankle hurt, his stomach throbbed. There was a strong metallic taste as he coughed. He had been pounded to the ground, an inch from death. His arms throbbed, his legs were exhausted. He looked up, his eyes struggling to focus.

"Wait." He reached, grasping Envy's foot. His hands were trembling but he was not going to let them take Ely. If they took Ely, would she become evil like them? He wasn't really attached to Ely, but it was morally wrong to let him take someone and turned them evil. That would also mean one more impossible enemy to kill. He coughed again, feeling the slow warm trickle down his chin.

"Get your filthy hands off me," Envy said in a tone of disgust, He shook Edward's hand off.

Edward could see spots of white dancing in his view. He had been hit too many times on the head. _I think I've got a concussion._ His vision blurred before fading to black.

"Let them go!" She screamed, barrelling into Lust. Lust staggered several feet away from the motionless Havoc. She had not seen Eleni approaching her. Eleni was fast even compared to her.

"It's good that you're here." Envy approached her. "That way we don't need to track you down." He lunged at her, pulling one of her right arm to the back.

Lust pulled the glove out.

_Our identity, our cage._

Eleni struggled to break free. Mimicking a move she had seen on TV, she flipped her body upwards to loosen the grip. However Envy had seen it coming. He gripped tightly on her shoulder, crushing it beneath his hands.

"Lust! What are you doing?!"

Lust looked down at the glove again. She didn't have much of a choice did she?

Eleni screamed. Her shoulder was burning. She couldn't move it. Was it her screaming? All she could hear was the throbbing in her ears and the fire in her body. There wasn't even energy for her to struggle. She gasped, sucking in deep breaths as the pain receded. That was when she felt the cool material cover her other outstretched arm. A particular feeling came over her, it felt like something inside her was dampening or loosening. She wasn't sure. Her mind felt foggy. Her mind was screaming for her to run as she felt Envy's grip ease, but her body wouldn't function.

"..other arm..."

"...made her docile..."

She twitched as she felt the tug of fabric on her other arm. NO! NO! In that moment, her brain surged forward, grabbing hold of her body. She backed into Envy, slamming into his chin by accident.

"Stop it," She heard Envy start.

She slapped Envy's hands away before he could grab her again, spinning out of their reach. "No!" She could feel the fire rush in her blood. She didn't know what this meant, but she felt good, so good. It felt right.

"Damnit, Hate. Stop resisting!" Envy yelled, stamping his feet in frustration. He sped towards her, readying to punch her unconscious. **SNAP**. He burst into flames before he could her.

"Damn sacrifice," Envy muttered, turning to look at the cavalry.

"Let's go," Lust called out.

"Don't forget her!" He dashed towards Eleni.

**SNAP.** Envy burst into flames again. "AHHHHH!" She screamed as the pillar of fire scooped her up. She could feel her skin burning, she could smell her skin burning.

"Put her down!"

Even though she could feel her body burning, she could feel the rush of energy to her finger tips. Her power. She slapped Envy across the face with her bare right hands, feeling the energy leave her. He collapsed, his body shuddering.

"HHHHHAAAATEEE!" He lunged at her, his form shuddering into another but desperately trying to keep his androgynous form. "I'LL GET YOU!" He hollered as Lust fled into the alleys, whisking him along.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Mustang swore as they swerved down the rapidly emptying streets. His fists grabbing tightly on the seats as the car weaved in and out of the streets and alleys in a speed that was clearly illegal. The inability to die, ability to regenerate almost instantly, why didn't he put on guards on her? He had assumed that she would be safe enough with Edward, Al and Havoc. It was not that it mattered to him whether she lived or die in all honesty. She wasn't one of his subordinates. The need to protect her wasn't as strong as the need to shelter the two siblings. He just hoped that whether she lived or die wouldn't matter to the brat. Mustang scoffed at that thought. He had seen how Edward had acted while giving his report on her, the brat needed her. For some insane reason that he could not decipher yet, the brat needed her more than he was willing to let on.

He paused in mid mutter, before realizing he had been muttering. The look on Riza's face told him that it had been loud enough for the occupants in the car to hear. He turned away, scowling at the window and tugged at his gloves again as though to make sure they were on.

"We'll get there in time, sir," Riza said. Her voice was flat but Mustang could pick up the faintest traces of tension through the years of experience. "I'll make sure that we do." That was all she could promise.

As they approached inn that Havoc had stopped at, they could see people fleeing from the area. The military car that Havoc had left in had been totalled; crushed as though a giant foot had stomped it. Mustang could feel his breath caught in his throat as he flung the doors open, trying to get an aim on the attackers.

_Let me be in time._ _Please don't die._

It repeated in his mind like a mantra. He couldn't imagine losing the brat. They might not appear to be on the best relations, constantly bickering, but contrary to what outsiders thought, their relationship was probably closer. There was no need to hide behind false expressions and flowery words.

He leapt out car. Tumbling into a barrel roll, he held his arm out ready to aim. Both Havoc and Edward lay motionless on the ground. Were they dead? He felt the adrenaline rush through him, the sound of his heart beating in his ears as he took in the situation. Havoc lay near the smashed phone booth, but too far from it. He must have rushed at someone and was thrown back. Empty bullet casings were strewn across the pavement supported that assumption. Multiple rock walls and bits of smashed rock were scattered across the road. The fighting had gone from across the road and- Where was Al? He threw it out of his mind as he saw the girl was running from the two figures. They must be the ones who hurt his subordinates.

**SNAP;** the two went up in flames.

He could feel the heat wash over him as he strode towards them. His flames had given Riza and Breda the window to move Havoc from the area. The brat was still too close. The pillar of fire turned to look at him. Why wasn't he going down? Why wasn't he dead? Thoughts of impossibility rushed through Roy's mind.

_The only thing impossible is the fact it's impossible._

"Impossible-" he heard himself say as the flames disappeared. He watched in disbelief as the creature, the boy's skin grew back. The creature turned back to the girl. He was going to kidnap her and then Edward's injuries would be all for naught!

**SNAP;** if his flames would give them pause at least. He stared in horror as he watched the boy ignored his burning flesh to pick Eleni up.

"Put her down!" He commanded. He will have to fake a bravo even if all he wanted now was a glass of really strong whisky. The inability to die. Fullmetal certainly was joking about it. How does one kill something that can't die? The thoughts leapt through Roy's head as he watched the creature in horror. He would send the creature in fire if he thought it'd help, but clearly it didn't.

Where's Edward? Is he safe? He glanced back at the spot where Edward had been. Hawkeye must have moved him for she was kneeling at that spot.

Riza emptied her gun into the figure. Eleni was going up in fire as well. It was because of his flames that she was burning. Mustang struggled with his need to snap again. Setting them on fire would be useless. It might injure his subordinates seeing the creature did not even care about being on fire. There had never been a situation where Mustang had ever considered his flames to be useless unless he was wet or it was raining. Chalk. He fumbled in his pockets for his chalk, cursing as he did. He had always been arrogant about his flame alchemy. Why would the flame alchemist need to do anything besides burning things? Then he looked up, only to see the two figures running away. What happened didn't matter for now. He pushed the questions to the back of his mind, filing it for later.

He hurried to Edward. "How is he?" his voice sounded unnecessarily anxious in his ears. The brat would laugh at him if he heard his tone.

"He seems to be just knocked out. A couple of bruises and probably a sprained ankle."

"And Havoc?"

"Just knocked out. He'll have a nasty bruise tomorrow on his face, but that's it," Breda said.

"Where's Al?" He scanned the mess, unable to find a large armour.

"We drove past him earlier, Sir." Riza looked at him with an odd look on her face. "Did you not see him? You nodded at him."

"I did?" He blinked, trying to recall, then remembering vaguely a clanking armour running down beside the car. He must have acknowledged Al. At least he was safe. One less worry.

Mustang turned to the girl. She was bare save for the fingerless glove on her left hand. _So her skin recovered and so did the glove, but not the other clothes. _Mentally waving his curiosity away, he shrugged his coat off and dropped it on her. He would have time in the future to figure why her glove had reformed but not the clothes loaned to her. She was getting more and more interesting.

"You okay?" He crouched and looked at her. Her amethyst eyes were glazed submerged in thoughts, staring blankly at her hands. Was it fear or apprehension on her face, Mustang could not decipher.

"The glove," she replied after awhile as if pulling herself out of her thoughts. Her voice was soft and hesitant. Was she afraid? Come to think of, he had never really paid attention to her voice. She didn't speak much except for the one time when she tried to explain the differences between her world and his. That one time, he was too busy trying to sort the information he was getting from her to listen to her voice.

He pulled her left hand towards him, rubbing gently on the black fabric. It was stretchy and smooth, like some elastic cloth. _Interesting cloth._ "What's wrong with it?"

"I can't pull it off." There was fear in her voice peeking into her voice. "It makes me feel funny."

_What sort of clothing can't you take off? Where did she get it anywa_y? He thought to himself as he tugged at the fabric. It stayed there resolutely on her hand. What about burning? "I'm going to try burning it."

She nodded and watched as the fabric burst into flames. She shuddered and a moment later the fabric returned.

_Very smart Roy. Didn't she already get burnt earlier? Burning it off certainly won't remove it._

"What do mean it makes you feel funny?" He pulled her upright, pulling the coat together. She looked so small in his coat. Roy hadn't noticed it since he had not interacted with her beyond the office, but she had a really small build for a woman of her size. Her shoulders were and her bones were delicate. A vast difference from Hawkeye who though was slender had the sturdy looking build. Eleni had the look of those crystal vases that Gracia favoured, the sort that could be smashed in one hand. Behind, Hawkeye and Breda had loaded Havoc and Fullmetal into the car. Somehow Al had managed to fit himself into the front seat beside Hawkeye.

"Fuzzy."

"Fuzzy." He repeated, nocking at eyebrow at her.

"Not quite right. Like a dusty window." She smacked herself in the head as though trying to clear some static she was receiving.

"Stop that." He stilled her hand with his.

"Sir. We're going ahead to the hospital first. There isn't enough space. Fuery is waiting for us at the hospital to assist," Riza called out, looking expectantly at him. Quietly adding find new clothes for Eleni to her mental to-do list.

He nodded. "We'll loan a car from the inn and meet you there." Her hand seemed rather small in his, now that he noticed. Was Hawkeye's equally small? Being a known ladies man, he was used to holding women's hands, but hers seemed so much smaller. It sort of seemed to fit. His train of thoughts were so not making sense. Small and warm. He dropped her hand like a hot coal, realizing he had been holding it for awhile. Without saying a word, he stalked towards the inn to fetch a car, glad to have a reason to not be with her alone. Breda could stay and watch her instead.

Breda stood beside the totalled car, staring at it in amazement. "It's quite…" He searched for words. "Amazing. How did they smash it so flat?"

"He jumped on it, and it flattened," she replied.

"Jump? Like –" Breda jumped as though he was jumping some invisible rope.

"Yes." She said absently as she knelt down, pulling some more papers out of the car. Just a few more that she and Al missed as they were scampering out of the car. What was her power? Was there a tie to the name the two called her? Hate, was it? She shuffled the notes into a neat pile before standing, tugging the coat to cover her front. "Lust, Envy…" Her mind trying to deduce what her powers were. What was she? She smelt her skin burn, she saw herself burn. Why was she still alive then?

"Eleni," a low voice called her. It almost felt like Rui calling her when he called her. Her stomach flipped as she turned to face the voice. Mustang sat in the car staring at her with a frown on his face. Very much like Rui but not him. She trotted up to the car, sliding into the back seat with him.

"What about the car?"

He looked away at the fading car, chiding himself for staring at her. "Oh. Well someone will pick it up tomorrow." He eyed her, noticing the papers in her hands.

"What are those?"

She looked down, startled at his sudden question. "Just notes on stuff," her eyes narrowed on them. Isonodium. Of all the things that she had to start remembering, she had to remember the exo-skeleton. She shivered, remembering how that single invention had changed the entire way wars were fought. The possibility of anyone even making those here scared her. Belatedly, she wondered why she had sprouted all that out. Too eager to regain her memories, she supposed.

* * *

Edward could smell the approaching rain as he woke. To be fair, he probably didn't even need to smell the rain to know the rain was coming. Wet days, cold days always made his automail hurt. He shifted in his bed, trying to get in a more comfortable position.

"Brother? Are you awake?"

He sighed, reluctantly opening his eyes. White washed ceiling and large windows. This wasn't his room. His eyes explored the room as he started to sit up. Al sat beside the bed. Though His armour was incapable of showing emotion, Al literally radiated with worry and relief at the sight of his brother getting up. It was not that he didn't think his brother wasn't, it was just an irrational fear every time he saw Edward get hurt. Havoc lay behind him on another bed, smoking his cigarette with a smirk on his face as he saw Edward get up.

"Evening Boss."

Why was Havoc… He frowned. Now remembering what happened.

"Is she-"

"Yes, she's with Colonel now," Al said, replying before Ed could finish his question. "Why were you so reckless?"

He sighed. "You even dragged Havoc into it."

"Hey," Havoc called out from behind the armor. "If you want to lecture boss, don't drag me into it."

"So?" Ed looked back at Al.

"You're staying here overnight with Havoc. Both of you are under supervision for concussion."

Edward groaned. The only thing he hated just as much as milk and needles was hospitals. He flopped back onto the bed unhappily. His hands and mind itched for something to occupy itself.

"Al-" he started. "Did you-"

Al pulled out the notes from the suitcase. Edward grinned as he shifted through the notes. There were many things that neither sibling needed to say.

"So as I was talking about earlier," Edward said continuing as though there had been no time lapse between fighting the two homunculus and landing in hospital. Havoc could not help be amazed at their concentration.

* * *

Roy sank into his armchair. The week was starting to feel incredibly long with everything happening. Massaging his nose bridge, he heaved an exhausted sigh. Hawkeye was right. He should have gotten dinner before coming home. The mere thought of getting up to make dinner was draining enough. Eleni sat on his other couch stiffly. Her purple eyes wandering all over, taking in the copious amount of books. His stomach rumbled as he sat there deciding if he could just skip dinner and sleep it through morning.

"Uhm- If you like…" she twindled her thumb as she spoke quietly, "I can cook dinner. I'm not tired, but clearly you are." She caught the questioning look in his dark eyes, her eyes quickly falling back onto her hands.

"I'm sorry."

"For?" He said, confused at her sudden apology.

"That I overheard what Hawkeye was telling you," she replied with a guilty look.

His lips quirked. "I don't think she trying to hide the fact that she needed to remind me to eat. She was pretty loud about it after all." His feet felt like lead as he got up. The girl's offer to cook never sounded more appealing, especially since he was never that good of a cook. "The knife's in the first drawer," was all he said as he went to get a bath.

He sighed as the water fell over him. It felt so good. Today was yet another day where he wondered if recruiting the brothers was a good idea. They seemed to bring trouble everywhere they went. "No," he corrected himself. "They attract trouble where ever they go." He chuckled. His subordinates and even Maes were apprehensive on his persistence on recruiting the kid but they wouldn't understand the depth of despair unless they had seen Ed's face then. The look on Edward's face looked like the face he saw in the mirror after he had returned from Ishaval. Tired, worn out, stark with grief and guilt that chased itself round his mind. They wouldn't understand. They might have lived through the same war, but the burden of being a state alchemist during that war was nothing compared to being the soldiers in the trenches.

Contrary to what he allowed others to believe, he did not recruit the brothers because he thought they would be good for his image. It is true that that they did padded his image with their antics, but it was secondary to his reasons. He had not stretched out in pity. It was not the shallow pity one offered to a man with a broken arm. It was the understanding that if he walked away from the kid in the wheelchair, the kid would remain there for the rest of his life; incapable of looking ahead, unable to break free from the never ending cycle of guilt. The kid didn't need coddling. He knew that he had to shock the boy out of it, offer the chance of redemption no matter how impossible it looked. Perhaps then, even after he had used up all his resources and when the kid had explored every possibility only to find impossibility, the kid might something else to hold onto and live on.

A loud knock shook him out of his thoughts. "What it is?" he turned to the door, hastily putting on his clothes before opening it.

"Sorry. You were in there for an awfully long time. I thought… that you might have fallen asleep," she looked down at her feet. "The food… is going to get cold."

The girl. The homunculus. It seemed that his office had found their ways on adapting to her presence. For most, they treated her like a normal person. He never was so complacent to believe that she was normal but clearly he had not given enough allowances for how not normal she could be. Today clearly proved to him that she was anything but a normal human being. That being said, he would have to start believing that homunculus actually existed. Roy sat down at the table, shoving the food into his mouth. He paused, looking at it in surprise. It actually tasted pretty good. He had never been a cook, preferring to have his meals at the mess halls or the cafes on his way home. Where did she get the ingredients to make the food from? The last time he went grocery shopping was almost two weeks ago. He paled and scrutinized the food. It was stew alright. Nothing looked foreign about it.

"Is- there something wrong with it?"

He looked up startled. She moved really quietly for a civilian. Did all homunculus walk that quietly as well? If they did, then he would have to consider extra precautions in dealing with them. "No," he replied after a long pause, realizing that he had been staring at her. "Just wondering where you got the ingredients from." He felt his lips twitch into a smirk. _Very matured Roy. Smirking when you have no idea how else to deal with situations._

"Actually.. there wasn't…" She trailed off, pulling some money out from his coat that she still wore. "I… bought them from the corner store."

His smirk faded into incredulity before contorting into anger. "You went out alone!?" He rose from his seat, slamming his palms onto the table furiously. "There are those- things! That are out there trying to snatch you back and you went out alone?!"

She flinched. Red colouring across the cheeks as she spoke, "They weren't going to come back that soon, not after what I did to Envy."

His eyebrows furrowed. _What she did to Envy?_ He struggled to recall what happened. He had been trying to find his chalk that he missed what had caused them to flee. "What did you do?"

"I'm not sure to be honest." She looked down at her hands. Her hands tugged at the glove absentmindedly. The glove really annoyed her. "Based on what I've seen from the homunculus. They have some sort of special powers. Envy's is shape shifting while Lust's is her nails. I think- I think my powers is rejection? I'm not sure. But it seems that my powers cause their powers to reject their control." She looked up, perplexed.

"Reject their control-?" he repeated, mildly distracted by her eye colour. Wasn't it purple earlier?

"It seems to cause their powers to go berserk. It's actually quite interesting. I think wonder if it only works on homunculus…" she paused in mid thought. "It would require further experiments in controlled situations to figure what my powers can do."

_Spoken like a true alchemist._ Roy smirked at his thought. He pulled himself back to the original topic. "No going out without an escort. Even if it's just round the corner."

Her eyes had a hard look as though she was going to object. But she did not, she knew what kind of position she was in and that left her no room to argue. She wasn't even going to try. They had been nice enough to her.

"May I read your books?" she asked, breaking the long silence that had lapsed between them. "I thought the basic alchemy book was interesting. Was wondering if you had anything above that." She fiddled with the book that she had pulled out of the small bag that Hawkeye had given her.

"I don't see why not." He waved casually at the bookshelves. "Feel free to indulge in them." Her eyes lit up. Wasting no time, she turned to the rows and rows of books, picking out several before sitting down to read. At least his research notes and sacrilegious books were down in his basement. Worn out, he gestured and muttered at the guest bedroom for her usage as he staggered to his own room. His large comfortable bed was all that went through his mind before sleep claimed him.

**A/N:** Yea I'm kinda working on my writing. Would be nice if anyone had some tips on how to improve it. Seems like my writing has gone down the drain lately.


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